Revealing the buried history of Aboriginal country music

It doesn't have mainstream recognition, but there's a home grown musical culture full of songs of dispossession, rebellion and heart ache - Aboriginal country music. Now a new book has been released which looks at its buried history.

Transcript

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LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: American hip hop and blues are huge in Australia, but there's a little-known home-grown musical culture full of songs of dispossession, rebellion and heartache: Aboriginal country music.

It hasn't got mainstream recognition, but it's full of incredible stories and drama, including prison performances similar to Johnny Cash.

Now a major national tour is being planned to build on the release of an album called 'Buried Country'.

Conor Duffy reports.

(Footage of Frank Yamma and David Bridie performing 'She Cried')

FRANK YAMMA (sings): Led away to die / And she cried..

CONOR DUFFY, REPORTER: Frank Yamma may not be a household name, but in Aboriginal country and roots music he's royalty.

FRANK YAMMA (sings): Please find me...

CONOR DUFFY: Frank's beautiful, sorrowful song 'She Cried' records his waking up in hospital after spending a week in a coma.

FRANK YAMMA (sings): ...and she cried...

FRANK YAMMA: I woke up. See, my missus was crying, you know... You know, like, "Ah, I'm bloody back to this world of living." So that's the reason why I write that song.

I love it when I'm singing that song sometimes, you know.

(Footage of Isaac Yamma performing live)

CONOR DUFFY: Frank's late father, Isaac Yamma, was known as the godfather of central Australian music. From the late '60s on, he sang modern songs in traditional language.

Frank began touring with his dad when he was seven.

FRANK YAMMA: Just take me back in time when I was young, you know, and all these strong memories are still around.

(Clinton Walker leads Conor Duffy through his crowded library)

CONOR DUFFY: You've got some albums to show me?

CLINTON WALKER, AUTHOR AND MUSIC JOURNALIST (laughs): Boy, yes.

CONOR DUFFY: Author and music journalist, Clinton Walker has chronicled this history in his book 'Buried Country.'

(Clinton pulls out an LP from a large shelved collection)

CLINTON WALKER: Oh, yeah. Well. Vic Simms: 'The Loner.'

CONOR DUFFY: Nice.

CLINTON WALKER: This is the album that Vic cut in Bathurst jail.

CONOR DUFFY: His book includes the story of Vic Simms, who turned a stint in Bathurst jail into a famous performance.

CLINTON WALKER: Vic had his battles with the bottle and a few things and finds himself inside; bought a guitar, as he loves to tell the story, for two packets of tobacco.

Johnny Cash had just done 'Live at Folsom Prison', right? And that was a huge hit all around the world. So Australian record companies, being what they are, thought: "Hmm, well, they did that over there in America. We'll do it here. We've got this blackfella in Bathurst jail. Let's go cut a record with him."

CONOR DUFFY: Even while finishing his sentence, Vic Simms toured in support of the album.

(Excerpt from 7.30 NSW, 15 November 2013)

VIC SIMMS (2013): And I'd started to do shows around particular parts of the state. And I was going out to malls and everything like this to promote the record.

CONOR DUFFY: Aboriginal country music started much earlier than that 1973 performance. In fact, before Aboriginal dance and art were popular, it was one of the only ways of having stories heard.

CLINTON WALKER: It became, yeah, that vehicle that Aboriginal people had for telling their stories before there was even, before there was writers or poets or anything, you know. I mean, this is going back to the 1920s, 1930s.

CLINTON WALKER: Here was a song, 'Brown Skinned Baby', about children being taken from their families. Now, this was written in the mid- to late 60s when there was certainly no recognition within white Australia generally: there's that story being told.

(Music video of Archie Roach's song 'Took the Children Away')

ARCHIE ROACH (sings): Taught us to read, to write and pray / Then they took the children away / Took the children away...

CONOR DUFFY: In the 90s, those stories did get more attention, particularly through Archie Roach's breakthrough 1990 album 'Charcoal Lane', which included 'Took the Children Away'.

LEAH FLANAGAN, SINGER/SONGWRITER: My grandmother was stolen. She... That's a song that we heard a lot and it means a lot. Like, every time I listen to it, I... you know, you still feel it. You still... it affects you.

CONOR DUFFY: Leah Flanagan is a young artist building on this tradition for her own rootsy songs - and the odd cover.

LEAH FLANAGAN: It's a very famous song in Darwin. It's...

(Leah Flanagan plays ukulele and sings)

LEAH FLANAGAN (sings): In the north coast of Australia / By the Arafura Sea...

CONOR DUFFY: Leah's songs are modern and breezy, but she says the history of the performers that went before her is revered throughout Aboriginal communities.

LEAH FLANAGAN (sings): The setting sun sinks later in September...

LEAH FLANAGAN: For us, it's great to see the stuff that you have: you know, your history, finally, in a book. Because when you come from an Aboriginal background, it's really hard to read or learn anything about... about the history of Indigenous anything, that's even from an Aboriginal perspective.